Brian v Enterprise Inns: Mannion sets first date for pubs to join in a monthly boycott of draught beer

Enterprise talk about a ‘business relationship’ but what we’ve got is a dictatorship

London: June 5th 2013

PUBS who are no longer prepared to put up with paying 66% more for kegs of beer than ‘free of tie’ pubs have been called to boycott draught beer on the first Monday of every month.

Mannion, who is available for interview at the Fair Deal For Your Local’ pub rally at Westminster today, has announced a monthly “Draught Beer Boycott” to start from Monday July 1st. This comes as a new survey by the Campaign for Real Ale revealed most publicans who are tied into buying beer from pub companies now earn less than the minimum wage in Britain – 60% of these landlords now earn less than £10,000 a year.

In a video interview today, Brian Mannion, licensee at The Black Lion Kilburn, says: “We’ve been forced into this action because Enterprise talk about a ‘business relationship’ but what we’ve got is a dictatorship. We want them to reflect on the following bizarre situation. Their dray truck will make a delivery to the ‘free of tie’ pub across the road and then drop off here and we’re paying 66% more on some of the same products.”

Mannion who says he refuses to pass Enterprise’s 66% costs on to customers by charging them £6 a pint says he’d like Enterprise to reflect. The Black Lion Kilburn has created the Twitter hashtag #draughtboycott for tied tenants and pub campaigners to use from July 1st to raise awareness.

“I’m sure there are lot of pubs in a similar situation. There’s a lot of disgruntled publicans out there and if we took a day of action one day in the month where all tied pubs stop buying lager they would force the pub companies to rethink their approach – it would be a purpose of action and we could move the situation forward.”

The Black Lion is the first pub in Britain to remove all its beer taps and cancel all orders of beer until its supplier Enterprise Inns lowers its prices. After 800 years it no longer serves beer in pints at the pub. Read The Telegraph story here

The Black Lion is also a member of the Fair Deal for your Local campaign, a coalition effort of 10 leading industry organisations. Coordinated by Greg Mulholland MP it calls for reform of the tied model of large pub companies.